Inara Turns 9 Months Old Today!

Wow. She is getting so big. When I weighed her today, she came up at 19 pounds. And she's about 27 1/2 inches long. Growin' like a weed! This past month she has changed so much. She squirms like there's no tomorrow. It's impossible to feed the girl now because she's turning her head, observing what everyone else is doing and what's around her. I've got Inara now eating three "meals" which includes one serving of veggies, one of fruit, and rice cereal. Not all at one sitting, but she gets one of these at a meal. Plus, she still takes a bottle right when she wakes up in the morning. Her nap schedule is all over the place. One day she will take only one 3 hour nap; the next day it will be three 1-1 1/2 hour naps. We're giving Inara a lot more floor time so she can wiggle around on her back and roll over. Actually, the other day she rolled from her back to her tummy in the effort to reach a toy she wanted to play with. This is huge since she generally hates being on her tummy, but she's starting to try more and more things out. That same day was the first time she tried pushing off on her foot to get to a toy as well. Ahhh, the crawling is just around the corner. Also, this week Shawn went in to check on her while she was napping and was surprised to see her sleeping on her side. He came and got me right away. That's the first time we've ever seen her do that. Another first this week was Inara woke up screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. Poor little thing is teething like crazy. It took me about 45 minutes to get her calmed down and back to sleep after giving her baby Tylenol and rubbing her gums with baby Orajel. I feel so bad that I can't do more to help ease her pain. I hate seeing my baby girl crying in pain. This also means she is drooling like crazy. She's getting slobber everywhere! With teething also comes the runny nose. I have to suction her nose clear at least twice a day. She hates having her nose stuffy and rubs at it all the time, so when I go to suction it out, she now lays there knowing relief is on its way. The other super big change we're noticing is her recognition of words and things. She totally knows who Avery is and looks for her when I say Avery's name. Inara also knows dog and Abby, specifically. She knows some of her toys, such as "fish" (in her toy aquarium), dog-dog (a toy on her chair), silly monkey (on the mirror in the car), etc. My favorite though is asking her where the trees are. Inara absolutely loves looking at trees, especially when it's breezy and the branches and leaves are moving. This makes her smile and giggle every time. We're working on teaching her some sign language now after I learned some words from a DVD I checked out at the library. I hope that she will be able to sign a couple words before we get to my parents' house in a few weeks. I know my mom and dad would LOVE to see her signing. Before I know it, my baby girl will be talking and signing away. Happy 9 month birthday baby girl!!!